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Notification Settings

Status: Complete

How to configure sound notifications, desktop notifications, and per-channel overrides in Chatalot.

Where to Configure

Notification settings are split across two locations:

Location What you configure
Settings > Notifications Sound toggles, sound volume, desktop notification toggle, default channel notification level
Channel header (bell icon) Per-channel notification level override

Sound Notifications

Sound notifications are short synthesized tones that play when certain events occur. Configure them at Settings > Notifications > Sounds.

Available Sound Events

Event Default Description
DM message On Plays a two-tone ascending sound when you receive a direct message
Channel message Off Plays a single tone for messages in channels
Mention On Plays a three-tone ascending sound when someone @mentions you
Voice join/leave On Plays an ascending tone when someone joins voice and a descending tone when they leave

Each event has a toggle switch and a Test button so you can hear the sound before enabling it.

Sound Volume

A global volume slider controls the loudness of all notification sounds. The range is 0% to 100%, with a default of 50%.

Tip: Sound notifications are generated using the Web Audio API (synthesized tones), not audio files. They work even without an internet connection.

Desktop Notifications

Desktop notifications are OS-level popups that appear outside the browser window. Configure them at Settings > Notifications > Desktop Notifications.

Enabling Desktop Notifications

  1. Toggle the Desktop notifications switch to On.
  2. Your browser will prompt you to allow notifications from the Chatalot site.
  3. Once granted, notifications will appear even when the Chatalot tab is in the background.

Permission States

State Meaning
Toggle available Browser has not yet been asked, or permission was previously granted
"Blocked by browser" (red text) You previously denied the permission. Reset it in your browser's site settings.
"Not supported" Your browser does not support the Notification API

What Triggers Desktop Notifications

Desktop notifications are controlled by two layers:

  1. Per-event preferences (in Settings > Notifications):
  2. DM notifications (on by default)
  3. @mention notifications (on by default)

  4. Channel message notifications (off by default)

  5. Per-channel level (see below) -- overrides the defaults for specific channels.

Desktop notifications only fire when the Chatalot tab is not focused (page hidden). If you are actively looking at the chat, only visual and sound notifications are used.

Notification Behavior

When a desktop notification appears:

  • Title: The sender's display name (or channel name).
  • Body: A preview of the message content.
  • Click: Clicking the notification brings the Chatalot tab to focus and navigates to the relevant channel.
  • Tag: Notifications are tagged by channel ID, so multiple messages in the same channel replace the previous notification rather than stacking.
  • Sound: Desktop notifications are set to silent: true to avoid double-playing with Chatalot's own sound notifications.

Web Push Notifications

Web push notifications let you receive DM notifications even when the Chatalot tab is completely closed. They are delivered through the browser's push service and displayed as OS-level notifications.

Requirements

  • The server must be configured with VAPID keys (VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY and VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY environment variables).
  • Your browser must support the Push API (most modern browsers do).
  • You must grant notification permission.

Enabling Push Notifications

  1. Go to Settings > Notifications > Desktop Notifications.
  2. Toggle the Push notifications switch to On.
  3. Your browser will prompt for notification permission if not already granted.

Privacy

Push notification payloads contain only metadata -- the sender's display name and channel identifier. Message content is never included in push payloads, because the server cannot decrypt E2E encrypted messages.

How It Works

  1. When you enable push, your browser generates a push subscription (endpoint + encryption keys) and sends it to the server.
  2. When someone sends you a DM and you are offline (no active WebSocket connection), the server sends a push notification through your browser's push service.
  3. Clicking the notification opens Chatalot and navigates to the correct channel.

Disabling Push

Toggle the push switch off in Settings. This unsubscribes from the browser push service and removes your subscription from the server.

Note: Push notifications cover DMs and webhook @mentions (a webhook post that @mentions you). When you are online, a webhook mention shows a live in-app alert instead; when offline, it is delivered as a push. Mention notifications for ordinary (end-to-end-encrypted) channel messages are not yet implemented -- the server cannot read encrypted message content to find mentions, so only the plaintext webhook path can notify today.

Limitation: the per-channel notification level (below) is stored in your browser only and is not sent to the server, so it governs in-app alerts but cannot suppress an offline push for a webhook mention (the same is true for DM pushes). To stop pushes entirely, disable push in Settings.

Default Channel Notification Level

At Settings > Notifications > Desktop Notifications, you can set the default notification level for all channels:

Level Behavior
All messages Notify for every message in every channel (default)
Only @mentions Only notify when you are directly mentioned with @username
Nothing No desktop notifications for any channel

This default applies to all channels unless overridden per-channel.

Per-Channel Notification Overrides

You can override the notification level for individual channels:

  1. Open the channel you want to configure.
  2. Click the bell icon in the channel header toolbar.
  3. Select a level from the dropdown:
  4. All Messages -- Notify for every message
  5. Only @mentions -- Only notify for @mentions
  6. Nothing -- No notifications for this channel

A checkmark indicates the currently active level. The bell icon shows a slash when the channel is set to "Nothing."

Tip: This is useful for muting busy channels while keeping notifications active for important ones.

Per-channel overrides are available for community channels only (not DMs). When a channel is set to the same level as your global default, the override is automatically removed.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut Action
Shift+Esc Mark all channels as read